Mars Rover Curiosity Set to See Red Planet As Never Before

EMERALD LAKES, TONGARIRO, NEW ZEALAND Near the summit of Mount Tongariro in New Zealand's volcanic region, the Emerald Lakes take their color partly from dissolved minerals. Courtesy of Antoine Hubert

CRATER LAKE, OREGON About 6,850 years ago, Mount Mazama blew its top in a massive explosion that rained ash, dust and lava. Following the explosion, Mazama's top collapsed to form the caldera you see in this shot, taken in 2006 from the International Space Station. The caldera later filled with water and became what is now one of the world's largest freshwater lakes with the deepest average depth of any in North America. Courtesy of NASA

KILAUEA CALDERA, HAWAII One of the world's most active volcanoes, Kilauea harbors a summit caldera that is covered in fresh lava flows in this satellite image. Courtesy of IKONOS/NASA

SANTA ANA VOLCANO, EL SALVADOR Look closely to spot two lakes in this colorized satellite image. The first, a crater lake, appears as a tiny blue area at the summit of the Santa Ana volcano, the highest point in El Salvador. The second, just behind and to the right of Santa Ana, is a much larger caldera lake inside the Coatepeque Caldera. The red coloring indicates vegetation on the slopes of the volcanoes. Courtesy Robert Simmon based on data provided by Timothy Gubbels and Asad Ullah/SSAI/NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

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CRATER LAKE, RUAPEHU, NEW ZEALAND The pale blue dot in the center of this image marks Crater Lake atop New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu, one of the most thoroughly studied and monitored volcanic lakes in the world. "Eruptions through the lake occur relatively frequently, changing the physical dimensions of the lake and posing a constant threat to human activities in the area," scientists at the University of California, Davis, wrote. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

A huge NASA rover slated to land on Mars Sunday night (Aug. 5) is expected to give scientists and laypeople alike some amazing views of the Red Planet.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover, the heart of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, will try to determine if Earth's neighbor is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life. To help address this question, the six-wheeled robot is carrying 10 science instruments — and a wealth of high-tech camera gear.

Like its older Mars rover siblings Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity comes equipped with cameras mounted on a head-like stalk (called the Remote Sensing Mast, or RSM), providing a point of view similar to what a person might experience. Unlike previous rovers, however, Curiosity’s imaging system — called Mastcam — has features that will offer a whole new look at Mars.

Developed by the San Diego company Malin Space Science Systems, Mastcam is composed of two separate cameras that sit side by side, not unlike a pair of eyes, just below the ChemCam instrument on Curiosity’s "head." Mastcam will allow color images to be captured directly. [Curiosity Rover: 11 Amazing Facts]

"It will take color in the same way as a consumer digital camera,” said Michael Ravine, advanced projects manager at Malin. "It’s as 'true' as your phone camera."

In addition, Mastcam can capture stereoscopic images in infrared, plus a whole range of wavelengths that are of importance to scientific goals.

Both cameras are fixed-length; zoom motors may be common in even the cheapest point-and-shoot digital cameras, but in a spacecraft they would have added extra fuel-guzzling mass.

Still, one of the cameras has a focal length of 100 millimeters (4 inches) that can resolve objects a couple of inches across at 1,000 feet (300 meters). "I think that qualifies as telephoto," Ravine said.

Scientists no longer will have to assemble time-lapse footage from individual Mars images, for Mastcam also can take high-definition video. It will capture 720p color video at six frames per second.

And Mastcam has the ability to store its own data. With 8 gigabytes of internal memory, Mastcam can hold 5,500 raw images, which can be compressed on the fly or just before transmission back to Earth.

Before Mastcam lets those on Earth see what Curiosity sees on its exploration, another state-of-the-art imaging system will help with a crucial part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission: the landing.

Curiosity’s "seven minutes of terror" landing sequence is the most complex Red Planet touchdown ever attempted, as the rover will be lowered to the surface on cables by a rocket-powered "sky crane."

This maneuver consists of many steps that must happen exactly right and perfectly in sequence, including the firing of 76 pyrotechnic devices. Adding to the difficulty is the relatively unknown terrain at Curiosity's landing site, within the Gale Crater.

Researchers have studied images of the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) crater taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but small-scale features at Gale such as rocks and loose debris will have to be contended with. To help with this, Curiosity is equipped with the Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI.

A downward-facing camera mounted beneath the rover, MARDI will image the ground beneath Curiosity as the rover descends to the surface, giving an aerial view of the surrounding region, as well as after the rover touches down.

Like Mastcam, MARDI (also developed by Malin) will store high-definition RGB color images in an internal 8-gigabyte buffer. Many of its first shots are likely to be blurred due to vibration as the rover descends. Even so, MARDI should capture the first-ever video-like sequence of an actual Mars landing, Ravine said.

"We’re looking forward to seeing that," he said.

Data acquired by MARDI will be used to determine exactly where Curiosity has landed, as well as provide an "astronaut’s-eye view" of Mars – although in this case the astronaut has six wheels and weighs 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms).

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